Can New Car Buyers Help Predict 2014 November Election?

Strategic Vision's Vehicle Research Study Reveals Answers

For immediate release - Monday, November 3, 2014

San Diego — Over the past four years Strategic Vision has collected self-identified political party choice on more than 120,000 new vehicle buyers, making some fascinating discoveries. The first major discovery is how new vehicle buyers are increasingly unhappy with both political parties.

	2014	2013	2012	2011
Democratic	25%	27%	28%	31%
Republican	32%	31%	37%	37%
Independent	18%	19%	18%	15%
None of the above	15%	14%	10%	8%

Essentially, the percentages of Democrat and Republican new car buyers have been decreasing with an increasing number of responses of Independent and None of the Above. This shift of an almost doubling of None of the Above suggests that, with all of our country's challenges experienced in a 24-hour news cycle, new vehicle buyers are not just blaming all politicians in general.

Increasingly people are becoming fed up with “politics as usual.” History has proven that when people are fed up, they will take more risk than they normal would in looking for the solution. We may hear in the news that Republicans will likely win many elections. While this might turn out to be true, it is not because Republicans have won more of the hearts and minds of the American people. Instead, we believe without clear and believable messages of a solution many US new vehicle buyers (voters) – regardless of where they get their news – will simply vote out of office the party in-charge for a change to see what happens next.

As seen in previous years, even though the US population has similar percentages for Republicans and Democrats, there have consistently been more Republican new vehicle buyers than other political parties as a whole. However, this changes when specific product segments are examined. For example, in 2014 a majority of premium convertibles buyers are Republicans rather than Democrats (52% vs. 19%). It is also true that for the past few years, across the board, the greater percentages of Multi-Function (e.g. station wagons, 5-door hatch types, etc.) buyers are those who claim to be Democrats.

In addition, those new vehicle buyers who said they were Green, Libertarian, Constitution, Tea Party or “Other” have clear differences from each other. For example, Tea Party members report having the greatest male (88%) and married (81%) proportions while the Green party is now the youngest (median age 38). Libertarians were once the youngest but remain the most educated (82% college graduate) and most affluent (annual median income $107k) of new car buyers.

The following list is from the study's most recent results, showing the Top 5 most popular models (by proportion) by political party choice:

Democratic	Republican	Independent	None of the above
Fiat 500e	BMW 6 Gran Coupe	Buick Enclave	Silverado 1500
SMART fortwo Cab.	Mercedes ML	Mercedes E Coupe	Nissan Armada
Ford C-MAX Energi	Cadillac XTS	Lexus RX350	Honda Civic Coupe
Honda Insight	Cadillac CTS	Hyundai Santa Fe	Jaguar F-Type
Toyota Prius	Acura RLX	Subaru Legacy Sdn	Cadillac ATS

Aside from these findings, Strategic Vision's detailed study of new car buyers also offers great information into how people think and will behave. “There are core values behind how all people make decisions and we measure them using the ValueCentered Methodology,” says Alexander Edwards, President of Strategic Vision. “There's so much that politicians or future politicians can understand if they'll simply display some courage and step away from traditional political consultants and work with those who know what motivates people by their most important values,” concludes Edwards.

Strategic Vision is a research-based consultancy with over 35 years of experience in understanding the consumers' and constituents' decision-making systems for a variety of Fortune 100 clients, including most automotive manufacturers. Its unique expertise is in identifying consumers' comprehensive motivational hierarchies, including the product attributes, personal benefits, value/emotions and images that drive perceptions and behaviors. The ValueCentered® psychology and research methods were defined by Dr. Darrel Edwards in 1968, and enhanced by co-founders J. Susan Johnson (1972) and Sharon Shedroff (1975). For further information, contact Alexander Edwards or Christopher Chaney at (858) 576-7141.